The ride was fun and full of scenery.
The ride was a laid back cruise, well at least for me, Stephen was a little taxed and cracked in the last 15 miles, but for his first long mountain ride, he did great.
After the pizza it we began to get lost on our way back to the train station. After walking a couple of figure eights around multiple blocks Clayton found an add that he thought he should take part in.
After a few hours of being lost we finally found our train and got to the house for the night, only four hours behind schedule.
The return trip was boring. We left Altoona, PA at 6pm and got into O'Hare airport in Chicago at 3am and grabbed a few hours of sleep until four of us (me included) got on standby and on a earlier flight at 6:30am, while everyone else waited until their flight at 1pm. We are all home now, another long stage race, another victory in becoming one of the best teams out there.
The scenery was awesome but didn't get to see a lot of it.
Looking down the road from Mt. Bachelor
Mt. Bachelor
Old lava flows (the darker mass beyond the trees)
Today was another killer day. Right off the start Toyota United got to the front and drove it hard. Clayton and I were watching for the early breaks and the one that got away Clayton got in.The first 70 miles were non stop rollers and a pace that just wouldn't let up (28 mph). Then the climb hit and the break got caught with Clayton in it. The group split badly on the climb to the finish but Garcia got himself a 5th place finish then Donald and the rest of us bringing up the rear. I stayed around Garcia and Donald towards the front most of the day keeping and eye on everything and there for them when they needed me.
After the flight I met up my Mike and began the 3hr drive to Bend, OR. These are called the Three Sisters right outside of Bend.
Today was stage one of the Cascade Classic and it wasn't much fun, but then it is work, so its not supposed to be fun. It was only 92miles but a killer climb half way through. It was about 6k with an elevation change of over 1000 ft. After the climb it went flat and windy and finished up a 3k steep climb. My job was covering all the early breaks with Clayton. We did our jobs well, but it hurt. Attacks were constant and the pace was very high for 45 miles. I established a break about 20miles in but no one was willing to work and we got caught after 6k. After the intermediate steep climb the race was guttered due to the wind and a small group of us got shelled with 13 to go. Garcia is sitting closest to first only 3:50 back of Wherry who won. Tomorrow is another day and some more killer climbs.
I found out late last night that not only does my travel today include a 2.5 hr flight but a 3 hr drive after that. The only good part is that my coach is picking me up and driving me in a rental. I guess I shouldn't be complaining, the rest of the team (6 guys) had to drive 20hrs in a cramped van, I'm guessing they will have watched around 11 movies on the drive there, they will probably need to buy some new ones for the drive back.
We came back down through Jamestown. Its not a large town at all, maybe four buildings total and hidden back up in the mountains, but they still had a parade for the fourth down the one city block. We couldn't help ourselves but we took some candy that the VFD were throwing.
After our four hour march on the bike we went to Hutch's place on top of Magnolia for some BBQ and drinks in the hot tub. It was just some good times with friends, and Hutch's crazy dog that is working on cutting down a tree with his teeth.
I get a lot of spare time off the bike lately and I don't know what to do with it all. Well there are things I need to get done but I am putting them off till later, right now its all about taking it easy and resting up for Cascade, thankfully there is good stuff on OLN now with the Tour on so the couch is my normal spot in the afternoons. Speaking of which, its time to hit the couch.
I am starting to feel back to normal, so hopefully my long training ride tomorrow won't be so bad.
Here is a pic of the man Carter with Wherry and Olsen.
The next few days will be spent in bed trying to kick this illness so I can start getting ready for Cascade in a few weeks.
Thankfully the van is fully loaded to help pass the time. We all took our turn in the back sleeping and watching DVDs. We had the satellite radio tuned to the same station the entire trip and heard every song being played twice.
The sunset along the range was a beautiful sight to see.
We hit the bar last night to unwind after the long trip and had a good time, but when we tried to sleep in this morning it really didn't work. We did a short ride out to the TT course in Verdi and looked it over. The course is going to be super fast. 5.3km and the winning time last year was just over 6minutes, thats going to be tough to match since I still don't have a 55T chainring on my TT bike, thankfully the race is an omnium so it won't matter too much.
All the squads are here, Jelly Belly, Toyota United, Health Net pb Maxxis, and of course us Team Einstein's (but with only half the squad). It will be a fast fun race. Reno itself is an interesting town, you can see construction going on everywhere as they try and revive an old town, its nice, but if I was going just for fun, I would take Vegas over Reno.
Then hitting the road and heading straight up, and up, then up some more and peaking out at peak to peak at 10, 500ft. Hitting some dirt on the way down. The scary part of the day happened to me when I had a flat coming down Magnolia (which happens to be one of the steepest paved road in America) so I had to try and keep the bike upright while tripoding to a stop, but I survived.
After four and a half hours on the bike we took a dip in the creek. It was pretty funny we drew a large crowd around us from the other locals try to catch a glimpse of us. Needless to say that the water was cold, but it felt great after a hard ride. Joe was a little shy.
Only in Boulder is this not out of the norm.
Here are a few shots of the new place.
Its just sitting and waiting for its first ride, maybe tonight, but probably not until tomorrow. 
The next two months are the downward side of the season, its hard to believe that the year has gone by so fast. In late July, I will have my ultimate test of progress. Coming from flat west Texas and calling myself a climber the Mount Evans hill climb race (28miles from 7,540 to 14,264ft) is my main target for the rest of the year, I would like to win it. I think I have it, but there is only one way to find out for sure, and thats to beat last years winner, Scott Moninger. The best part will be coming out of Cascade in early July will be the best training for it, just take a look at the course profiles and you can see pain written all over every days road races with the sharp peaks making it look like an EKG print out.
All in all this last weekend was good, lets just say we walked away with a total amount that had a number then four zero's behind it. $$$$$
The race last night was yet again fast and a crash fest, and once again we were all able to avoid them all, lets pray the same for todays race with is worse than all the others in course layout. We did have an awesome race, Jason took first and a lot of money.
We went out and celebrated last night over the win, that was a mistake without eating first we were all drunk and in I Hop by 11, and none of us feel great today.
We spent some time on the bike yesterday morning before the race to wake the legs up some, Tulsa is a very beautiful place, I was expecting a dry sandy place.
The race last night was fast and hard. For 75 minutes we were hauling around eight corners on a mile loop in downtown Tulsa. I was all good to start, we were at the front doing some attacking and some pace making, but then in the last five laps it all went south. There were a total of five crashes in the final ten minutes and they destroyed the field. Luckly none of us went down, even though we came within inches of being another victim on the was to the hospital last night. We had some good finishes, out of 126 races we had a 14, 17, 25, 28, 30, and a 48; not as much money as we wanted but there is always tonight and tomorrow.
We headed over last night to a local practice crit race just to do some PR and show ourselves around the local community here in Tulsa. After that stop we made some other stops that consisted of just some good entertainment from drinks and then from a certain type of club for gentlemen.
The races don't start until tomorrow night with a night crit so we've got some down time to just kick back and relax.
